England captain Joe Root backs momentous series win in South Africa as template for Ashes glory

It was at the start of October that skipper Joe Root and new coach Chris Silverwood sat down to plan their route to the 2021/22 Ashes.

The road taken started with the bump of a series defeat against New Zealand. But here in Johannesburg, as England secured a 3-1 win over South Africa, the project was back on track for 2021/22 Down Under.

Victory at The Wanderers by 191 runs, combined with the victories at Cape Town and Port Elizabeth – wins by 189 runs and an innings and 53 runs respectively – has England in promising shape even if the opportunity to reclaim the urn which Australia took home over the summer with a 2-2 draw is 21 months away. A lot can go wrong in that time.

And while it is important to temper any lauding of domination of a Test side that have had more false starts than a learner driver, this felt different. Even taking into consideration just how poor South Africa were – that first win at Centurion by 107 runs should really come with an asterisk given the illness sweeping the visiting squad – England emerge from this series with a sense they have evolved from the loveable clowns of comical defeat one week, outrageous victory the next.

Root, who had an exemplary series as captain aside from his first decision to bat first having won the Test at Centurion, agreed the template for being competitive in Australia is in place.

“There’s still a huge amount of test cricket to be played until then. It does give us confidence and it gives us knowledge on how to perform on wickets that might be slightly similar. We’ve got to keep looking to get better and keep developing.

“It might travel well at the moment but we feel like the sky’s the limit for this team so we’ve got to keep looking to improve. We’ve done extremely well in the last three games but in the last three years we’ve not been consistent enough. We’re very open about that.”

The crux of that optimism is based on fast bowling. While they had to deal with Jofra Archer’s right elbow injury keeping him out of the last three Tests – he registered five wickets in the first but was short of his usual outlandish pace – they were able to call on Mark Wood for the final two matches.

His five for 46 and four for 54 in this match, which began just three days after the culmination of the third Test in which he made his first appearance of the series, was as much a chance to celebrate his speed and incisiveness as it was to laud his newfound physical robustness, in part because of his longer run-up.

England’s 4-0 defeat in the 2017/18 Ashes was particularly galling for the way their pace bowlers could not come close to touching Australia’s. Had Wood been there, things might have been different. England would probably have still lost. But they would at least had a puncher’s chance.

“It would have made a big difference, I do believe that,” said Root when asked about an alternate timeline when Wood was fit for purpose. "It’s something you feel that you need in those conditions. But as Woody said, I don’t really need to answer the question because he’s done it for me, but there’s a long way to go between now and then.”

Wood echoed Root’s thoughts from a personal point of view. He was out in Australia alongside the Test squad for 2017/18.

“It would be a dream to play in Australia and try to win there, but the way the recent past has gone it’s not a case of looking that far ahead.

"We’ve got a battery of fast bowlers – Jofra, Olly Stone is not here, Saqib coming through – there’s plenty of options for Rooty but hopefully we can all get around at the same time.”

Ben Stokes, who was given the man of the series award, also concurred that the nucleus for competitiveness in Australia was coming together: “Obviously we’re building for that series. We’ve seen what Jofra can do, what Woody can do and Jimmy missed out on the last two Test matches and we managed to win two games without the greatest ever fast bowler that the game’s seen which is exciting as well. But having Woody and Jofra on the pitchy at the same time would be very, very exciting to see what would happen in Australia.”

The all-rounder who scored 318 runs, took 10 wicket and held 12 catches, also took a step back to appreciate the steps towards being a fit-for-purpose Test side, with those of 24 or under contributing handsomely, such as Ollie Pope and Dom Sibley, who both registered centuries along with 266 and 324 series runs respectively.

“These last two games have literally been the template of a full Test match for us,” said Stokes.

“Bat first, get more than 400 because we know that first innings runs give huge pressure to team batting second. We managed to bowl them out twice without batting again in Port Elizabeth, and then here we were in a position that it would have been interesting if it wasn’t the last game of the series.

“We could have enforced the follow on then, but we weren’t in a position where we felt we had to. First innings runs is always what we want and we’ve done that in the last two games.”

For three of the touring party, their Ashes quest starts soon. Dom Bess, Zak Crawley and Sibley will travel to Australia for the red ball segment of a Lions tour. All three have found themselves thrust into the fray of Test cricket and come out the other end with not just a series win but their own personal success. One which will no doubt permeate to their teammates from 7 February when they join the squad.

That, perhaps, is the most element of what this side have created. Everyone, young or old, wants to be a part of it. At a time when five-day cricket is painted as a bit of a drag, being part of the England Test squad has never seemed more fun and rewarding.